The horn pictured above
was made by the Boston Musical
Instrument Manufactory
following a design attributed to Elbridge
G. Wright. In fact it is quite probable
that the design is due to, or certainly
influenced by Wright's partner, Henry
Esbach since he no doubt brought
experience in horn making from his native
Germany. The example shown below by E.G.
Wright & Co. and the dated testimonials at
the bottom of this page show that this horn
design predates the founding of Boston Musical
Instruments Manufactory.

This design features a very long slow-tapered
leadpipe extending from the mouth piece around
the entire circumference of the corpus to the
first valve. The main tuning slide comes after
the valve set and is placed on the front of
the horn. The tuning slide on this example has
a loop not shown in the company's catalog
drawing (see below). The subject horn is
made entirely of brass throughout, in contrast
with the original Wright & Co. horn shown
below which contains nickel-silver ferrules,
braces, and trim. Note also this horn has an
additional brace from the third valve casing
to the bell tail that is not shown in the
catalog drawing nor found on the Wright &
Co. horn.

The valve levers are mounted on the top of the
rotor casings and are cantilevered over to the
rotors to the opposite side. This is different
from the original Wright design (see below)
where linkage to the rotor is on the outside
in the typical manner.

The bell tail and flare has a clearly visible
continuous single "zipper" seam (photo at
right) in contrast to contemporary
European-made horns that often had a
vee-gussett inserted. Unlike the original
Wright design as shown below, this horn does
not have a bell garland .

The bell brace differs from those on the
Wright horn and other examples from BMIM and
may be an indication of the horn's date of
manufacture. This horn does no have a serial
number which dates it to before circa 1880
when BMIM began numbering its
instruments.

Overall the horn is in excellent condition
having no patches and showing no other
evidence of repairs. The valves remain very
tight, indicating the horn has not had much
use, certainly not professionally. As a result
it has a full range from pedal to high C, and
excellent relative intonation throughout at
all volumes without "edging out." The very
long leadpipe gives a beautiful tone and the
wide bell throat appears to eliminate any need
for a garland. It is pitched fairly high with
A=ca.448 with a moderate pull of the main
slide.

The E.G. Wright & Co. horn
shown above (left) belongs to Mark Elrod and was
beautifully restored
by
Robb Stewart. The illustration (above,
right ) and testimonials (below) are from the 1869
Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory catalog. This
model was priced at $50 for brass or $60 for German
silver. It was the instrument of choice of Mr. Henry
Schmitz, the first virtuoso solo horn of the
N.Y. Philharmonic, and of August
Hamann and Luke Murphy of Boston. Their horns
were built by E. G. Wright and predated the founding
of Boston Musical Instrument
Manufactory.

Henry Schmitz
(1823 - 1914), was solo horn of the N.Y.
Philharmonic from 1848 to 1869, of the Theodore
Thomas Orchestra from 1866 to 1877, and several
other well-known orchestras. He was a frequent
soloist and gave the American premiere of
Weber’s Concertino on January 12, 1856 with the
Philharmonic. He was also undoubtedly the
principal in the first U.S. performance of
Schumann’s Konzertstück in New York on
December 4, 1852, which had been composed only
three years earlier. The horn on his lap
is the Wright / Boston model.

The second testimonial is by Carl August
Hamann(1827 - 1892)
who was a horn virtuoso and music teacher in
Boston from 1852 until 1892. In addition to
performing with the most important conductors of
his day, he was a popular chamber musician on
both piano and horn. Among his piano students
was Louis C. Elson, who later became head of the
theory department at the New England
Conservatory.

Luke Murphy
(1826 - 1874) was a member of the Boston Theater
Orchestra for ten years. He was a featured
soloist in Terzetto
di
Lombardi, by Verdi on the opening
concert at Selwyn's Theatre on October 28, 1867,
and was solo horn of the orchestra conducted by
Charles Koppitz. He also served as president of
the Boston Musicians' and Relief Fund Society
for five years and in 1872 was awarded a gold
watch for his "energy and zeal in behalf of
professional musicians. The same year he was
founding vice president of the Boston Musician's
Club, for the purpose of providing a social hall
for the members.
Unlike most of his colleagues who were
German-born, Mr. Murphy was a native of
Massachusetts.

Henry Schmitz with his Wright
& Co. Horn

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Mark Elrod
and Robb Stewart for the use of the photo of Mark's E.G.
Wright & Co. horn, and to Robert Eliason for his
assistance.

References

Ayers, Christine Merrick. Contributions to the
art of music in America by the music industries of Boston,
1640 to 1936, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, 1937

Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index of Wind
Instrument Makers and Inventors, pub.Tony Bingham, London
1993